Chuck vs The Betrayal
by Kadira
Summary: A rogue NSA agent tells Chuck about Casey's order in 2.01. Chuck tries to deal. Slash - Chuck x Casey


******Disclaimer:** Chuck and the characters used here belong to Chris Fedak, Josh Schwartz and the NBC. No copyright infringement is intended, no money is being made.

**Chuck vs. The Betrayal**

by Kadira

**I. **

Chuck's world comes crashing down early autumn, on the roof of a cinema in L.A., at the same time as Batman tries to capture the bad guys on the big screen. The irony isn't lost on Chuck, even if he can't really appreciate it at the moment.

He holds the flash drive over the roof, ready to let it fall any moment. The fall wouldn't destroy it, he knows, but one of the cars on the main road most likely would. That in return would save the world once more, or at least the live of a few dozens undercover agents.

"Who are you waiting for? Major John Casey? Your protector?" the rogue NSA agent, Mike Flamey, not Fulcrum, just a mere rogue, asks with a nasty sneer. "You don't know anything about Casey. Or did you know how close he came to killing you? He was ordered to do so once the new Intersect was up and running. And let me tell you - he didn't hesitate once to follow the order. I know it. I was there; called in as backup in case he faltered because of some ridiculous personal attachment to his asset. It never seemed to have crossed his mind not to do it. Not even once."

Mind curiously blank, Chuck clings to the flash drive, the one thing that stands between him being alive and dead (again!). It is funny how he never seems to get used to the life and death thing, no matter how often it happens. And obviously not only in the field. His brain works furiously as it tries to come up with something witty to say, something that would be worthy of Charles Carmichael, super spy in her majesty's…, no, in the service of the government, currently standing at the edge of the abyss while looking into the barrel of a pistol.

"It's not true." It is not quite the comeback he has aimed for, but the situation doesn't exactly lend itself to anything else, least of all time to think about something more intelligent to say.

The answer is a laugh, which erases every doubt Chuck could still have. "Oh believe me, it is. But why don't you ask him yourself? Here he comes! The mighty Major John Casey! Ta-da!"

"Don't move, Mike. Hands above your head."

It's Casey. Chuck can hear Sarah's lighter steps approaching from the other side.

"Are you all right, Chuck?" she asks.

He nods. He is, isn't he? Perfectly fine. How could he not be. After all, he just saved the world once more and that without getting himself killed.

Mike Flamey laughs as he follows Casey's orders. His weapon falls with a surprisingly loud thud to the ground. "He knows your little secret, Johnny-boy, that you were more than willing to kill him. I thought he had a right to know." The smirk is there again, dark. "Don't think he will feel like trusting you anytime soon again."

"I'm going to kill you, bastard," Casey growls, not taking his eyes off his fellow agent. Or former fellow agent. Even after all that time, Chuck still isn't quite sure about the naming protocol for such things. He just knows that there is one. If their government has something in overabundance, it is manuals and protocols. For everything.

He clings to that thought, even as Mike Flamey's revelation echoes in his mind, loud and clear, trying to penetrate his brain.

Some detached part of him realizes that Flamey is moving and _hears_ Casey releasing the trigger. His "No!" comes one second too late. Mike Flamey hits the ground with a thundering, terribly _final_ sound and wide eyes, which would never see anything again.

Chuck feels sick and lightheaded, his knees weak, and it costs him quite an amount of willpower to force himself to move away from the edge of the roof.

When he sees Casey moving towards him, he holds up his hand. His voice sounds strangely detached when he says: "Don't. I'm all right." Chuck's eyes are fixed on Casey when he takes a step back – away from the body, the blood, the truth, and towards the safety of the door.

"Chuck."

Sarah.

Chuck wants to cling to her voice, to let it support him. But he can't. Not at the moment.

"Do you have orders to kill me as well as soon as a new Intersect is up and running? Was all this about me being finally able to live a normal life just another lie? Maybe to keep me quiet and cooperative?" Chuck asks her, voice shaking only very slightly, much to his own amazement.

Sarah shakes her head. "I'm sorry, Chuck. I didn't know about this. This was not a CIA order." The gaze she gives Casey is murderous. It's not really a solace.

"Here," he says, voice tired, then throws the flash drive with the sensitive data to her.

He turns around and leaves the roof without another glance back.

**II.**

Later, as he tries to listen to Morgan's nostalgic talk about the old sandwich shop he always went to as a child, his first love, so to speak, Chuck wonders just why Flamey's revelation surprised him. He knows what Casey is – a killer. After all, he had wanted to kill Chuck during their first meeting and had admitted to having killed Bryce Larkin (or so he had thought at that time at least, which is really all that matters in the end), and god only knows how many other people had died by his hand.

Still. Chuck had thought that their relationship had progressed somewhat since that day. That they had gotten somewhere, between Chuck becoming the Intersect, Fulcrum, Ilsa Trinchina, Jill, Bennett, being almost bombed and killed every other day, being tied up in hotel rooms and all such fun stuff. That they maybe even had developed something like a friendship along the way.

Well, maybe not a friendship. Right now, he isn't even sure if Casey really knows what that means. But a bond of... _something_, maybe whatever NSA agents consider people that they don't want to kill.

Obviously he has been wrong.

"And then just the hint of mayonnaise. buddy, I tell you, you have never tasted anything like that. It's the closest I have ever come to heaven. Maybe apart from the turkey Ellie makes. I really hope you'll get to taste it very soon, because words just aren't enough to describe it!"

Chuck smiles and nods at Morgan and he thinks that he even promised him to find a suitable replacement during the last hour, or maybe to find out if that store still exists. It's fine with Chuck, because Morgan is safe. Morgan isn't part of the game. Morgan would never pretend and then betray him. It is safe to spend time with him.

"What do you think about getting away for a few days?" Chuck finally makes up his mind. "Just the two of us, like in the past."

Before Stanford, before he had met Bryce Larkin who, in his attempt to protect Chuck, had turned his life into a real mess. Away from his not-quite-pretend relationship with Sarah, away from the man who would kill him as soon as he gets the order.

God, his life is such a mess! He groans, then, meeting Morgan's worried gaze, forces himself to grin.

This whole pretending and lying business was getting worryingly easy these days, Chuck realizes once more when Morgan's eyes brighten up almost immediately. "So, what do you think?" he asks Morgan.

"Are you serious, buddy? The two of us on a journey to the perfect sandwich! It sounds like a dream coming true."

Chuck nods after only the briefest moment of hesitation. "Buy More will survive without us for a few days."

"And Sarah?" Morgan asks.

"She'll understand. You are my best friend after all." Maybe she really will. Chuck certainly hopes so, but between being almost shot, almost thrown off a roof top and finding out that one of the people he is supposed to trust implicitly had wanted to kill him, he can't really bring himself to care all that much about that at the moment. He could always leave her a note; let her know that he was fine, just in need of a break.

Chuck swallows the guilty conscience he feels, focuses instead on Morgan. What had Casey said? The service survived for 200 years without the Intersect. Certainly a few days of him taking off wouldn't destroy it now.

**III.**

When he returns to the Buy More a week later, complete with his watch and cell phone (200-something missed calls and messages – Chuck doesn't need to check to know who has tried to reach him), the first person he runs into isn't Casey, but Emmett. The assistant manager demands to know why the wonderful Chuck Bartowski doesn't even think it necessary to come to work on time after just taking an entire week off.

Chuck is so relieved to see him first, that he almost embraces him. _Almost_. Even so, his inner feelings must have shown on his face, because Emmett takes a step back from him, carefully, as if fearing for the worst.

"There's a lot to do. You better get working, Bartowski," he says before walking away instead of giving Chuck one of his lectures.

The relief however is short-lived and between Chuck trying to deal with an almost hysterical businessman whose Blackberry died on him and a teenager whose Xbox doesn't react anymore, Casey suddenly appears in front of him. Before Chuck can say something, before he can even think of what he _could_ say (it's not every day that one is faced with one's almost-killer, who also happens to be one's handler, protector and co-worker all in one handy package after all), he is grabbed at his elbow and pulled away.

"I'll fix it for you. Just come back tomorrow and then you can play again," he manages to tell the bewildered boy, before he finds himself being dragged out of public view, around a new bunch of TV sets – 'Especially cheap, the _ideal_ Christmas present' - into the semi-privacy of the showroom – and beyond.

The grip around his arm is like steel and Chuck can't quite suppress a wince.

He feels himself thrown hard against the wall of the corridor and then there's a huge hand on his throat. The eyes locking with his seem to burn with something that Chuck would say borders on insanity. He swallows nervously.

"If you ever do something like that again, Bartowski, just vanishing for a week, then—"

"Then what?" Chuck brings out, forcing his breath through the strangling hold on his throat, along with a weak laugh. "You'll kill me?"

He is still trying to laugh and breathe at the same time when Casey releases him and he slumps to the ground.

"There will be a meeting this afternoon. A possible lead to the inner circle of Fulcrum. You better show up. If you don't, I will find you and drag your sorry ass to Washington myself. And that will be it for you, Bartowski," Casey says, his eyes fixed on Chuck, who feels the strong urge to hide in some hole. "The Intersect is needed. No more slacking off."

And with that Casey turns around, leaves Chuck to himself - a sprawled misery on the ground.

**IV.**

"Sarah." Chuck isn't really surprised to see her.

"If you ever just leave again, Chuck Bartowski, then I will shoot you myself," she says, voice cold and calculated, all business-like, a strong contrast to the smile she shows the world when she leans in to kiss him. Chuck nods, silently. "Leaving us to scramble for explanations for General Beckman, so that she wouldn't think that you betrayed us!"

"Wait, I would never betray-- You did that?"

"Of course we did, Chuck. Did you really believe that either of us would just let you be taken in? Don't ever be such an idiot again! Next time, come and talk to me before you do something like that. I'm on your side. We will figure something out. Or don't you trust me anymore?"

Chuck thinks of the dead Fulcrum agent from last year, the one Sarah doesn't know Chuck saw her kill. It's one of the many things they never talked about. "I trusted Casey as well," Chuck says. He has come to terms with what Sarah did. Somehow. It had been horrible and had given him nightmares for months, but she had done it to protect him. Not just the Intersect, but _him_, Chuck Bartowski, resident nerd turned spy.

It's horrible, but different. She didn't try to kill him like Casey. But at least now he knows that he is no more than a disposable asset for the NSA, valuable for the moment only. It is a surprisingly bitter truth.

Sarah takes a deep breath. "I don't think highly of what he did. Of what he _tried_ to do," she amends. "But it was his order. And it doesn't mean that he wanted to do it. Or that I would have let it happen."

"That is... not reassuring at all, Sarah."

"I know. And I'm sorry," she says, her gaze serious.

Chuck believes her. "We should get ready. The bad guys are waiting for us to catch them," he says with a weak smile.

"You should talk to him, Chuck. This is not good. Not for you and not for our missions," Sarah says, then takes up her bag.

Chuck can't say that he agrees with her. In fact, he thinks that talking to Casey won't do anybody good, least of all him. And what is Casey supposed to say that could make a difference? Chuck doesn't have the faintest idea.

**V.**

The mission goes as planned, with him sticking to Sarah and trying to ignore Casey. Not that Casey says much, which is a tad worrying, even for him. It helps though, that he is stuck in the van while Sarah and Chuck are in the field, once more covering as a couple.

Or at least the mission goes as planned until Chuck flashes. Not Fulcrum, but some or other government-sanctioned killer who comes out of the lift just as they want to enter it. Chuck freezes, but it is his unintentional "Sarah, bad guy alert. _Really_ bad guy alert," while the man is still near them that is their undoing.

Once more Chuck finds himself with a knife at his throat, being dragged down an abandoned hotel corridor (and by now he is pretty sure that empty hotel corridors when one least needs them must be something like 'Murphy's Law For Spies'), while his earpiece lies useless on the floor of the elevator.

Welcome to Chuck Bartowski's daily life.

"What are you grinning about?" The spoken English has a strong accent to it, most likely Middle East, the Intersect provides very helpfully.

Chuck shakes his head as much as he dares with the knife pointing at his throat. A very _sharp_ knife from the feel of it. "Nothing." Nothing anybody would understand at least, maybe apart from his team, but they weren't here. Yet.

"Nice room," he comments when he finds himself unceremoniously showed into it. Before he can say anything more, he is pushed against a wall, hard enough to knock the breath out of him for a moment.

"What do you know about me?"

Chuck tries to shrug. "Nothing."

The bad guy shoves him into a chair while he exchanges the knife for a gun with a speed and skill that Chuck can only admire. This time however, he is wise enough to keep his mouth shut.

"So you want it the hard way, eh? It would definitely be more fun for me, but since I'm usually a very agreeable person, I will give you one more chance to talk. What is your name and who do you work for?" the killer asks while tying Chuck up. "You and your pretty lady down there."

Chuck shakes his head. "She has nothing to do with this. She doesn't know anything. _I_ don't know anything!" Which is mostly the truth, really. The Intersect obviously doesn't even have a name on the guy.

The man ties the last knot on Chuck's legs before coming back to his feet, a wide and far too pleased smile on his face. It doesn't promise anything good, least of all for Chuck. Chuck is very sure about that. Nevertheless, he forces himself not to let the uprising panic show on his face. Where the hell were they? Sarah should have had enough time to follow them and Casey should have heard that something went very wrong by now! Then again, maybe he saw it as the ideal way to finally be rid of Chuck for good.

No, probably not. Regardless of their current situation, Chuck still is the Intersect and as that is supposed to be protected and—

Chuck's head flies back as the man hits him. "Hey, no spacing out! Not when the party's about to start!"

"Maybe we could talk about this first? Because I'm not really in the mood for a party."

"That's too bad, because I'm all set already," the killer says and Chuck wonders if he ever stops smiling his unnerving smile. This line of thoughts stops dead when he sees the needle the other man is holding. For the first time Chuck seriously fights against the bonds. "You know what this is?"

Chuck shakes his head almost frantically in the face of the far too huge needle, which the killer waves in front of his eyes. If there is one thing he really hates almost as much as being almost killed, then it is needles.

"It's a new truth serum," the man patiently explains, already by Chuck's side and before Chuck can even wince, he has pushed the needle into the vein. Chuck is pretty sure that he can _feel_ the bright yellow liquid entering his bloodstream, slowly poisoning him.

"It's much faster than the usual stuff and very effective. In a few moments, you will tell me everything I want to know and much more," the killer says, then pats Chuck's arm, before getting up again. "And if I'm happy with your answers, I might even give you a fast and clean death later."

Chuck forces himself to hold on, even as something within him – probably the serum, or maybe just his nerves, something like self-preservation – tries to overwhelm him, to wrap his brain into some false sense of security. He still recognizes the feeling from last year when Paine had exposed them to his poison. It's one of those feelings that Chuck never wanted to feel again.

But mostly, he doesn't want to die!

"Hey," he starts and then just keeps talking, unable to stop himself: "What do I need to do, because I don't want to die? I would really rather prefer to stay alive, because I have my sister, you see. She would be heartbroken if I couldn't make it to her Christmas dinner. And my best friend Morgan would be lost without me. And there's still the problem with my second job and my hand—"

He stops in his rambling as the door splinters and springs open, revealing his rescue team – _finally!_ Though Chuck has to admit that he certainly wouldn't have minded if they had come a few minutes earlier, preferably before the needle. The loud (and rather impressive) entrance is followed by the screams of the killer, first of surprise then of pain, as Sarah jumps at him, kicking him until he stumbles and then once more where it hurts the most.

While Casey ties up the killer, making sure that he won't go anywhere anymore, and Sarah releases his bonds, Chuck can honestly say that he has rarely been gladder to see the two of them.

**VI.**

Chuck doesn't remember much else of the rescue operation or the details of him ending up in the medical room of the Castle. And the little bit he does remember, he wishes desperately to forget. Telling Sarah how wonderfully the blue of her dress makes her eyes gleam and how fantastic she looks when she kicks some bad guy's ass, were the least embarrassing memories. Between drifting in and out of consciousness, he also remembers how strongly he had voiced his gratefulness for the rescue as well as telling one Major John Casey what he really thought of him – the good as well as the bad.

Unasked, of course, just acting on the strong desire within him to talk.

He also thinks that he still has an echo of Sarah's "No, Casey! It isn't his fault. He's drugged. Just continue driving" in his ear, which must have been only seconds before the lurking blackness had finally gotten to him.

The first moments after he had woken up had been rather awkward and once Chuck had met Casey's murderous gaze, he hadn't been quite so sure any more if being rescued was really preferably to the fast and clean death the killer had offered him.

Now that he is sitting here, listening to General Beckman while suffering the worst hangover in the history of mankind, he still isn't entirely certain if death wouldn't have been a better option. Maybe he can provoke Casey a bit more until he'll put Chuck out of his misery...

"You all did good work, even if it wasn't the planned mission. Thanks to you, a very dangerous individual has been taken out of commission. How are you feeling, Mr. Bartowski?"

"I'm still alive." Somehow at least.

The General nods. "Thanks to the fast reaction of Agent Walker and Agent Casey. If they hadn't realized that you had an overreaction to the serum, we might have lost the Intersect. I think we can all agree that we are grateful that it did not come to that."

"Certainly," Chuck answers, barely able to hide a grimace at the hypocrisy of it all.

"I wish you a fast recovery, Mr. Bartowski. A few hours of sleep and you should feel back to normal."

**VII.**

Working at Buy More seems like a surreal dream after the mission, with Casey breathing down his neck (in fact, it seems as if he never lets Chuck out of his sight any more, which doesn't make for a very relaxing working day) being the closest thing to reality Chuck has. It lets Chuck realize once more just how messed up his life is and how much he wishes for another Intersect to be created.

If only there wasn't that thing with him having to die, because Chuck doubts that the General has changed her mind about that. Yet there's still a part of him that can't help but hope for a normal life again, far away from the missions and everything that accompanies them, away from the blood and the danger, away from this constant flirting with death.

Chuck is no hero material and nobody knows that better than Chuck himself, no matter how used he is to his secret life by now.

When Morgan joins him at the Nerd Herd checkpoint, almost bouncing, and asks what Chuck thinks about taking another trip, maybe after Christmas, he is almost tempted to say yes, if only to escape the situation and maybe to get another attempt at clearing his mind. But then he looks around and crosses gaze with Casey, followed by the ring of his phone ~ Sarah ~ (and here Chuck starts to wonder if they have maybe found a way to connect directly to his brain while he was out cold, so that they can read his thoughts now and act accordingly). He ignores the call and shakes his head. "Big Mike will never give us another week off. Not right after Christmas."

Morgan nods regretfully. "Yeah, probably not. But maybe later?"

Chuck's nod is rather vague. When Lester comes around the corner, waving with a camcorder and starts to tell them about the group of absolutely gorgeous cheerleaders that they had missed when they were off, Chuck turns around. "I still have a computer to fix," he explains Morgan. Emmett, who joins them just then, looks suspiciously at Chuck, obviously determined to see if Chuck will vanish again. For some reason, he is still very focused on Chuck, almost as if he expects Chuck to be one of the worst individuals to walk the planet. Or maybe just an employee who happily skips work every so often. "The customer wants it back this afternoon," Chuck says.

"Do you need any help?" Morgan asks a tad too eagerly to be believable, so Emmett shakes his head before Chuck can even open his mouth.

"Grimes, as far as I can recall – and going with the color of your shirt here – you are not one of the Nerd Herd. Bartowski will probably be more productive without you around, so do _your_ job and sell something for once!"

**VIII.**

Chuck's peace in the cage doesn't last long. He has become so fine-tuned during the last months (which makes him wonder if Bryce was right after all when he said that it's too late for Chuck), that he can feel Casey's entrance, despite the man barely making a sound.

"What do you want, Casey?" Chuck asks, not even meeting Casey's eyes, fully focused on the laptop in front of him. "Making sure that I didn't run off again? Don't worry. I have no plans to do that."

"You won't go anywhere again without telling us. Are we clear on that, Bartowski? Because if you do that, I will take you to Washington, no matter what Walker and the CIA say. You are the Intersect and we can't afford losing it."

It's the most they have talked to each other since their last mission, which had ended with Chuck being drugged and doing his best to embarrass himself in front of everybody. Since then there has been no new assignment, no new trace of Fulcrum, and no more baddies in the Buy More which could cause Chuck to flash. In fact, Chuck is starting to suspect that they have some kind of bad-guy-newsletter in which they mentioned that the Buy More had become an unsuitable gathering point and had found a new place. Chuck doesn't mind, certainly not a few weeks before Christmas. It also allows him to avoid Casey, which he sees as an extra-plus. If there is no mission and nothing happening, there is no reason to interact with him and it is easy enough to avoid Casey at the Buy More if he wants that.

Usually. Apart from today obviously.

Chuck grimaces. "Of course you can't. Not until you build a new one. And after that? It will all be: 'Why don't we just kill the guy after we are done with him playing spy', won't it?" He doesn't wait for an answer. "I'm just the Intersect after all. You've made that more than clear." Chuck tries to keep his voice and face blank. He doesn't believe that he succeeds. He never does. It's like Ellie told him - he wears his emotions on his face. Girls go for that, she had explained some months after he had returned from Stanford. If she's right, Chuck hasn't seen it yet. He only knows that it is a trait that can lead very quickly to death in his secret life, or at least cause severe humiliation – for Chuck, of course.

But there is no way he can tell her that she is wrong and why. It's for the same reason that he can't tell her that the nice if slightly eccentric neighbor, who also happens to be her brother's co-worker, who she has invited for Christmas, is actually a deadly, government-sanctioned killer who had wanted to kill her brother not too long ago. On orders of said government, but that doesn't really change the facts.

Chuck scowls as he takes apart the laptop and tests the wiring.

"That's damn right," Casey says. "The Intersect is the reason we are all stuck here. And I will do everything that is required to keep my country safe. Not that you would understand that, Bartowski."

When Chuck finally looks up, he is alone again. In a sudden burst of emotions, he clears the table with one sweep of his hand, then curses and starts picking up the small screws.

Damn Casey! Damn the NSA! And damn Bryce who caused the mess to start with.

**IX.**

Chuck isn't big on drinking, but the sudden increase in tension upon Casey's arrival to their Christmas dinner makes him seriously consider getting drunk. He is just grateful that neither Ellie, Captain Awesome, Morgan nor Anna realize just what is going on, because Chuck isn't so sure he can lie his way out of this situation.

Fortunately, Sarah is there and she not only feels the tension, but also _knows_ what is going on. She tries to ease the atmosphere by taking Chuck's hand in hers and tells a Christmas anecdote out of a life she most likely never had, but which makes everybody laugh and opens a flood of these stories.

Unexpectedly, she doesn't berate Chuck later, but he sees her going over to Casey, only shortly after the NSA agent has excused himself.

Chuck is pretty sure that Sarah thinks him a hopeless case, at least when it comes to that. Maybe that's why she decided to talk to Casey now.

And maybe she is right. But how is one supposed to pretend that nothing happened with the one person Chuck knows almost killed him? Maybe it is different, or at least easier when you choose to be a spy; maybe then you know and can live with the risks. Chuck, however, never had the choice and while he has become quite good in the field, there are things that don't come easily to him. Turning off his emotions is one of them.

**X. **

Two weeks later, one of Chuck's flashes sends them on an undercover mission to a party in a secret men-only club in Burbank. For obvious reasons, Sarah has to stay out of the field-action this time. During the briefing, she had still tried to protest, telling Beckman that Chuck wasn't ready for such an operation, but both Chuck and Casey, had refuted her. It had been the first time in... forever, maybe the first time ever, that the two of them had agreed on something.

Chuck can still feel Sarah's worried gaze on his back long after they have left the van and are out of her sight. It's weird to be alone with Casey after what happened and after what Chuck knows now, but Casey is a professional agent and Chuck thinks he has learned enough during their time working together that he can pull off the mission. And right now, he _can_ trust Casey. After all, there is no new Intersect in sight yet and so Chuck is still a valuable asset.

He hides his grimace. Not fast enough, because Casey is on him right away. "If we want to keep our cover, you're going to have to act more professionally, Bartowski. This isn't your first mission!" he berates.

"Don't worry, I will," Chuck says, his voice surprisingly even. "I have enough practice in pretending by now after all."

He forces himself not to react to Casey's snide remark about nerds, idiots and missing brain parts and instead keeps moving. Somewhere between the sex shop and the entry to the club, he even finds a smile somewhere, which he puts on his face.

"Act like very good friends. It's your best cover," Beckman had said.

Chuck can do that.

And he does, too. They get in without trouble, mix with the other party guests and even manage a friendly banter between themselves, which sounds believable enough for their audience. The evening goes on and Chuck and Casey try to separate from the horde without attracting attention when Chuck flashes on a door at the end of a long, narrow corridor.

The door reveals yet another set of stairs, broader than the entire corridor. "We need to go down," Chuck says and follows his own words right away. Casey is right behind him with his gun at the ready, muttering something under his breath that is too low for Chuck to understand, but he is pretty sure that Casey isn't too pleased about the "down there" bit. Chuck isn't either. Downstairs means being easily trapped, as he has learned, which can lead to very unwelcome complications.

At the end of the stairs are two rooms. Chuck opens them both. The first leads into some kind of laboratory, the second one, the one they need, into a surprisingly spacious office. Both rooms are windowless as well as devoid of people. Chuck breathes a sigh of relief at the latter and follows Casey into the office.

"Where, Bartowski?"

"Give me a moment," Chuck murmurs, looking around the room. "It doesn't go that fast." Chuck has barely finished the sentence when the flash comes, showing him the inside of one of the three steel containers near that second door. He smiles. "There. The last container."

Chuck goes over and experimentally tugs at the drawer. Much too his surprise, it isn't locked. He has barely time to say so when the door opens and five men enter, all of them armed. Chuck freezes while Casey curses. "Damn it!"

"It's very nice of you to bring the Intersect right to us, Major Casey," the first man, Chuck's size but with red hair, says, smiling brightly. "I just wish my organization had listened to me earlier. It would have saved us quite a few people. You and Agent Walker were too effective, Major. But I knew that the right words at the right time would make you bring the Intersect to us. Your organization is very predictable. Why don't you come with me now, Mr. Carmichael, wasn't it? No doubt a fake name, but I'm sure you will trust us with your real name in time."

"He's not going anywhere," Casey says. "And if you get out of our way now, I maybe even won't hurt you too badly." Chuck hears the release of the safety. "Stay behind me, Chuck. No matter what happens," Casey tells him and Chuck finds himself nodding.

The man, one Kurt Beyer the Intersect tells Chuck, honest-to-god _giggles_. "You are outnumbered, Major. One NSA Agent, a burnout at that, and the Intersect won't be a match for us. But maybe _we_ won't hurt _you_ too badly if you hand over the Intersect now. We even promise to take very good care of him. If you don't hand him over, however, we will shoot you and still take him with us."

Chuck closes his eyes for a moment as he realizes that they are well and truly trapped, no matter how good Casey is. Their only hope is Sarah and Chuck isn't quite sure how she is supposed to get into the building. They have to play for time or take their opponents by surprise. Or both. There is no other way out for them.

When he sees the other men tensing before they prepare to shoot at Casey, all five of them, he makes up his mind and takes one step to the side, away from Casey's protective back.

"What the hell are you doing?" Chuck thinks that he sees a flicker of emotions in Casey's eyes, but he can't be sure and in the end can only hope that Casey will do the right thing.

"Let him go and I'll come with you," Chuck says, putting all of Carmichael's confidence he can summon into those few words.

"Chuck!"

Chuck ignores Casey. "I don't like the NSA's methods all that much," he says. "Maybe you know how to treat the living Intersect. Better than them, that is.

"That I can promise you," Beyer says.

"If you take one more step, I will shoot you, Chuck," Casey growls in that way that always makes Chuck wish never to end up on his bad side.

Chuck doesn't turn around when he tells him: "Again? You see, that's your problem, _John_. People would probably be more obliging if they didn't need to fear for their life," he says and takes another step away from Casey, well aware of all the weapons and the eyes that are trained on them, following their every word and move. "Maybe they won't threaten to shoot me. I'm a valuable asset after all, which can level you up very high if you use it the right way." Chuck really wishes that Casey had even the slightest clue about video games, but supposes that it is a lost case..

And he is right. Casey looks at him as if he has lost his mind and right now, standing almost between him and the men, Chuck wonders about that as well. He had wanted to give Casey room to move, to do _something_, but it obviously backfired. So much for the hope that the strict surveillance - and Casey being forced to listen to everything Morgan and Chuck talk about - would finally prove to be useful.

"Right," Casey says, then points the gun at Chuck, who really doesn't feel all that confident any more about his plan, which wasn't much of one to start with. Even he has to admit that. "Aiming, firing and leveling, right, kid?"

"Something like that, yes," Chuck says and turns half around to Casey. He can't help but eye the gun warily.

"Then wait and see."

Chuck takes a deep breath, waits for the shot to come. Suddenly he feels very calm, not really afraid of death anymore. And hey, if he dies during a mission, he'll go as some kind of hero at least, even if it's through the gun of his partner. Not that anyone will ever hear about it.

The room is deadly silent, at least until the moment when Casey pulls the trigger, followed by a pained scream as Kurt Beyer drops to the ground, clutching his chest.

Before Chuck can really feel relieved, the next shot sounds. Unfortunately, this time not from Casey, but one of Beyer's henchmen, aiming at Casey. He misses narrowly as Casey jumps to the side, closer to Chuck, firing as well.

And then the backup shows up in form of Sarah who looks more than ready to kick some ass. A beautiful angel of vengeance, promising death. Or at the very least a healthy dose of pain. One would think that by now Chuck would have gotten used to the image - he has seen her in action often enough - but he still gapes at her, doing a very embarrassing imitation of a fish as she joins the fight.

In the ensuing chaos, Chuck manages to creep out of the room, while Sarah and Casey clean up.

Chuck's stomach lurches when he realizes what will happen now. They know who Chuck is, which means that, even if it was just a lucky guess, they either have to take the Fulcrum agents with them or get rid of them for good, at least if they want to protect Chuck's cover. Too much depends on it. Not just the Intersect, but, even more importantly for Chuck, the safety of his family and his friends.

He's used to a lot of things by now, no matter how dangerous a mission becomes or how close he gets to being killed every so often, but the death of others isn't one of the things he will ever get used to. Chuck is very sure about that. But he loves his family more, so, while he knows that he will feel terrible for what is to come (there have been too many deaths already thanks to him, too much blood on his hands), Chuck sees the necessity.

When Sarah and Casey follow him not too much later, they find Chuck around the corner, bent over a trashcan, vomiting. Wordlessly, they lead him to the van, where Sarah holds his hand and Casey drives them back to the Castle.

**XI.**

One month, one (now defected) north-Korean spy, three stakeouts and two missions later - and nearly getting killed just as many times, of course - Chuck finds himself finally ready to face Casey and the truth. It's three months after Flamey told Chuck about the other part of Casey's mission, and Chuck thinks that his timetable isn't too bad, not for someone who was almost on the receiving end of Casey's mission.

Since Chuck is a bit of a coward (he never claimed to be a hero, not by choice anyway, certainly not outside of computer games and no matter how many lives he saves with his actions), he doesn't do it at home, nor at the Castle.

The Buy More might not be the best choice, but it is somehow neutral ground and Chuck can be sure at least that Sarah won't just show up there. Well, she could, but it's not her break time and seeing as nothing has happened, she probably won't come over. At least that's what he hopes. There are things Chucks needs to do alone and this is one of them. Sarah won't be able to help him here, nor would he want it. In fact, he thinks it would be kind of embarrassing if he needed Sarah for this confrontation. He's an adult after all.

Chuck has avoided Casey for the most part outside of their missions, so he is a bit irritated when he can't find him now that he is actually looking for him. What is it with Casey always being stuck to him, especially when Chuck doesn't want him to, yet when he wants to talk to him, he can't seem to find him?

"Hey, Chuck! What do you think about a round of flying choppers and blowing up bad guys?" Morgan stops Chuck in his steps.

For a moment Chuck is tempted and not only because it has been too long since he and Morgan spent some quality time together. Playing games with his best friend seems much easier than what he has planned as well. But then he shakes his head. "Maybe later. Do you know where Casey is?"

Before Morgan can reply, Big Mike appears behind them: "Grimes, you don't have time to even think about playing games. Go to the storage cage and make yourself useful. Help John with the new delivery."

Morgan grumbles after Big Mike, something about him having become a spoilsport since Emmett has taken over and shown him how a store is supposed to function. When he moves to follow the order, Chuck stops him with a hand on his shoulder. "I'll go," he offers.

"Would you really? Thanks, buddy! You're a real friend, Chuck! I'll make it up to you!"

"It's all right," Chuck says and grins at his friend before turning around.

**XII.**

"What are you doing here, Bartowski?" Casey asks while heaving a microwave from the pallet. Chuck can see that he's done a considerably amount of the work already, yet he isn't even breathing harder. Even after all this time, it still amazes Chuck just how seriously Casey takes his cover job and he can't help but wonder if there's anything he does slack off at. If there is, Chuck hasn't found that weak spot yet.

"Big Mike thinks you need help. It was either me or Morgan," Chuck says and steps beside him. "I thought you might prefer my company."

Casey just looks at him for a moment, then finally puts the microwave onto the ground and starts tackling the huge carton of games. "So it was a question of the lesser of two evils."

"Oh, yes. Sarcasm. I was wondering what my morning was missing."

Casey mumbles something under his breath that Chuck can't understand. He resists the urge to ask and instead takes one of the computers and moves it into the storage cage. He does it three more times, then finally makes up his mind and leans against the cage, arms crossed over his chest. "Actually, I also wanted to talk."

This actually gets Casey's attention. "Did you flash?"

"I'm not just the Intersect, you know?" Chuck says, then, with a note of resignation adds: "No, I didn't."

Casey shrugs and turns his attention to the work at hand, putting the delivery into the storage cage as if he has lost all interest in their conversation and Chuck's presence.

"But it is about the Intersect. Kinda." Chuck isn't very good when it comes to talking. He can talk his way out of many situations, but just as often his mouth gets him into trouble and even more often he embarrasses himself. But when Casey doesn't answer, Chuck continues (because he is nothing if not persistent): "What about a new Intersect? Are you already building it? And what about after that? Do you still have the order to kill me?"

Casey remains silent, making space on the shelves, ignoring Chuck completely. It is very unnerving.

"I'm supposed to trust you – with my life. How can I do that when you keep something like that from me?" Chuck stops when he realizes that his voice becomes shaky. Damn the NSA! And Casey and Flamey! "I just want to know if the order still stands. We don't even need to get into the whole pers—"

"There is no new Intersect." The voice sounds muffled from behind a carton.

"What?"

"I said," Casey says, standing almost in front of Chuck now, "that there is no new Intersect. That's all."

"But if there's going to be a new one, then—"

"Just shut up, Bartowski," Casey says, entering Chuck's personal space, which isn't quite as unpleasant as it should be, or maybe Chuck's just got used to it in the meanwhile, at least with Casey who has no regard whatsoever for other people's space, least of all for Chuck's.

"Hey, I just want to know where I'm standing," Chuck defends himself, which is rather ridiculous, really, because he isn't the one who was willing to kill his partner.

He lifts his arms in a gesture of surrender, but before he can do or say anything else, Casey is not only in his personal space, but steps so close that Chuck feels himself pressed against the grid.

"What does it take to make you shut up, Bartowski?" Casey says, voice all rough and dangerous. After working with him for so long, Chuck is only mildly intimidated. "There is no new Intersect. Just leave it at that. Or I promise I will kill you now if you don't stop babbling. I'd probably even get away with claiming self-defense! The General knows how infuriating you can be."

"But, that's—"

Before Chuck can finish the sentence, he finds himself not only caught between Casey and the grid of the cage, but pressed against it by Casey. By Casey's body, to be precise.

"Woah, Casey, just wh—" Chuck never gets a chance to finish the sentence, because suddenly Casey is not only in front of him, holding him there, but his lips are on Chuck's. Firm and hard, demanding, pressing against Chuck's own lips.

Once Chuck realizes just what is happening, once he becomes aware of the tongue stroking over his lips, his brain shuts down and his mouth opens of its own accord. And with the first feeling of Casey's tongue in his mouth, Casey invades Chuck's entire world - with his presence, his taste. He takes it over from the beginning to the end, makes thinking impossible.

When they separate and Casey releases him just enough so that Chuck can breathe again, Chuck finds himself licking his lips, savoring the taste of – _oh god, it had been a kiss! Not with Sarah, but with Casey of all possible people!_

"What—"

"Shut up, Chuck," Casey says and Chuck realizes that the growl does interesting things to his suddenly hypersensitive nerves and a certain body part, which comes to the conclusion that now is a good time to wake up and develop a life of its own, as if Chuck is nothing more than a horny teenager with no self-control whatsoever.

"There's no new Intersect. So stop worrying about it! You're safe!"

Chuck can only nod, then, when he can finally trust his voice again, adds: "Shutting up," then leans forward, crossing the short distance between them again to press his lips against Casey's. He doesn't quite know why he does it, apart from the fact that the first time just felt _right_ and now he wants more. His kiss isn't quite as urgent, but he feels himself becoming pliant under Casey's hands, one of them on his head, fingers tangling in his hair, the other on his backside, wandering up over his back, pressing him close, their bodies together.

**XIII.**

Life takes on a more surreal quality after this, making Chuck wonder if he has maybe taken the wrong pill or if he has woken up in some strange Lost Highway-ish world. There is no other explanation for the unexpected turn in his life.

It doesn't stop at the first few heated kisses in the cage. The Buy More has to continue without them for a few hours after that. Instead the Castle sees action as it has never done before. Chuck is sure about that. Neither has he for that matter, but that doesn't stop him from fumbling with the green shirt, or his shirt from losing two buttons as Casey tries to pull it off him, then it is thrown over the camcorder they use for the briefings. It doesn't stop him from arching into the hot, searching hands on his bare skin, and the almost too hot lips on his chest, or from Chuck savoring Casey's salty skin and from feeling the hard muscles move under his hand.

It's a silent union, with no words spoken, as they are driven by a desperate need, which Chuck finds impossible to describe. He just knows that he _wants_, more and stronger than anything he has ever wanted before. There is a hunger within him that urges him on and given Casey's reaction, Chuck isn't the only one suffering from it.

The Castle is silent, save for the groans and moans which escape them both, and a short cry as they satisfy their urgent hunger before it can consume them.

Later, Chuck can safely admit that he's never had better sex. Not that he has much to compare it with, but when he rests on the table, Casey pressed against him, he feels sated and content and maybe safer than he has at any time before.

**XIV.**

In the beginning, they don't talk about it either. They just find each other when it is needed (which happens very frequently) and act on the urge. Not just in the Castle, but also in the facilities of the Buy More, Chuck's room (at least the one time Ellie wasn't home), Casey's apartment and once even a car. But no matter where it happens, they always dress silently later and return to the real world without ever talking about it.

Strange as the situation is, it doesn't interfere with their missions and that is something Chuck is very grateful for, because he has no doubt that it would stop right away if it did, which is something he doesn't want. What they have might defy definition, but he doesn't want to give it up. But instead of interfering, their teamwork is better than any time before, to the point that even Sarah notices it and comments on it after one of their debriefings, around a month after their first encounter in the storage cage.

Chuck still feels pleasantly sore and can feel the bite mark on his chest, as sharp as if Casey had just inflicted it, when Sarah brings up the topic. It's just one innocent comment which weighs heavily in the room. But since what happens between them is not something Chuck feels comfortable talking about, least of all with Sarah (and how is he supposed to explain something he can't even put into words, much less talk about with Casey?), he leaves the explaining to Casey.

"Seems our golden boy is finally turning into a real spy," the NSA agent says and leans back, giving them his highly annoying, very smug smile.

_Smartass!_

Fortunately, Sarah leaves it at that.

Unfortunately, it's just for the time being, because later she knocks at Chuck's door and corners him. When he tells her that they did talk – and in a way it's true enough, they just didn't do it with so many words – she gives him her 'told you so, didn't I'? gaze. But at least she is satisfied for the moment.

When they lie in Casey's bed later, still caught up in the afterglow, Chuck, for the first time since this thing between them started, breaks the silence.

"What about Sarah? She keeps asking me about us. Well, not about this, obviously," he says with a short, nervous laugh, "but she wants to know what happened..."

For a moment, Chuck worries that him breaking their unspoken 'never talk before, during or after, or really any time, especially not about this' agreement will destroy what they have, but then Casey yawns and turns around to him. Even in the near-darkness of the room, Chuck can see that he looks just as sated as Chuck feels.

"Let her wonder. It's fun seeing her this way. She's a bright girl. Give her some time and she'll probably figure it out."

"Won't it bother you?"

"Why should it? Our covers are secure and it doesn't interfere with our work."

"But—"

"You're worrying too much again," Casey says with a sigh. "Just shut up and go to sleep, kid."

Then he chuckles.

"What?" Chuck asks, not without a certain suspicion. An openly happy Casey is such a rare event that it pays to be wary. Chuck wouldn't put it past Casey to follow up on amazing sex with his typical brand of humor – most likely at Chuck's expense.

"I just hope I'll be there when she figures it out. Her expression will be priceless!"

Chuck can't quite suppress his own chortle at the images it brings up.

It's a first evening for a lot of things, Chuck realizes when, after a last kiss, he finally gets comfortable and closes his eyes. A first for talking and a first for them spending the night together. It's strange (he has never imagined spending his nights with a man – apart from Morgan and that is something entirely different!), but he quite likes it, he decides as he enjoys the sound of Casey's light snore and the heavy arm over his body, keeping him safe, anchoring him.

**XV.**

It's different with Casey. His lips are hard and his hands rough, while at the same time also being capable of a gentleness that Chuck hadn't believed possible, knowing exactly where to touch him, how, knowing exactly what Chuck _needs_ and wants, sometimes even before Chuck does. Then again, given Chuck's limited experience with either gender, it isn't that much of a surprise that this is still so new and foreign to him.

And while what they have can hardly be classified as a relationship, there is no uncertainty or wavering as with Sarah, for example. There are also no butterflies or a feeling of desperate yearning. Instead there is something else, something more sustainable, something deeper. The time they manage to steal for themselves is filled with a straightforward desire, which none of them even pretends to want to resist. It just _is_, and they feed it happily enough. There is no time for deceit or for the charade he and Sarah share, where Chuck can never say just what is true and what not. With Casey, there is no space for games or make-believe. The touches and kisses are genuine, just as much as Casey's offensiveness or the risk he presents.

Chuck has to admit that the lack of strings and the lack of the rollercoaster emotions, which he has experienced in most of his relationships so far, is a relief.

He still isn't sure about their future, of what lays ahead for him, but right now, he can't bring himself to worry too much about that either, least of all during the nights when he uses the Morgan-door to leave the house without being noticed.

Maybe Casey will kill him after all, or maybe he won't. They don't talk about it any more and right now, it doesn't seem important either (though Chuck, of course, rather hopes it won't come to that, since he quite enjoys being alive, now more than ever). For now Chuck is still the Intersect and there's the whole 'don't ask questions if you aren't sure that you can take the answer' thing. Or something like that. Fact is, Chuck doesn't want to know the answer to that question, wouldn't, in fact, ask Casey, even if he could get him under a truth serum or another situation that, just maybe, could grant him the truth.

Chuck isn't sure if he could deal any better with the possible answer now than he did those months ago when Flamey had told him about it. Sometimes ignorance is indeed bliss. It's about the only thing Chuck is certain of when he feels those lips pressing against his own, the rough stubble of Casey's chin scraping against his cheek, followed by a gruff: 'It's morning already. Work's waiting. It's time to get up.'

Casey might be a lot of things, but Chuck is sure that nobody would ever accidentally mistake him for a romantic. It is no wonder he kept failing Roan's class, Chuck thinks and grins as he gets up and dresses.

"See you in a few," he calls to the open bathroom door, loud enough to be heard over the running shower. He resists the urge to follow Casey and instead makes a move to get to his own home and his own shower. Ellie and Captain Awesome will be up soon and Chuck doesn't want to make them wonder where he is, or, worse, have to lie to them. There are too many lies as it is. No need to add even more to the growing pile. And with this lie, Chuck wouldn't even have the luxury of telling himself that it is for their own good.

It's what he likes about being with Casey. It's easy with him. He knows what Casey is, Casey knows what he is. There's no need to pretend, no need for lies. No emotional entanglement like with Sarah and no deception or fear of betrayal as there was with Jill, or basically anyone he has ever met outside of Team Chuck and his own family.

When they are together, it's just about them.

Chuck still doesn't know about Sarah, but he suspects that she knows by now and just keeps silent about it. As Casey said, she's intelligent enough to put the pieces together. If she hasn't done so already, she doubtlessly will in the not too distant future. They aren't flaunting it around, but it is there, strengthening their bond, giving them... something, and Sarah is neither blind nor stupid.

He just hopes that she won't ask him about it, because Chuck doesn't know how to explain it - least of all to her - no matter how many turns their relationship has taken and that they have agreed to leave it on a platonic level for now.

Come to think about it, Chuck doesn't want to talk about it at all. He just wants to enjoy the unexpected turn in their relationship, wants to cherish the moments when he can be just himself with the right person. For now, it's perfect and he doesn't want to trade it for anything.

Chuck isn't even quite sure he would be ready to trade it for a normal life, no matter how much he yearns for it. He just wants this, wants Casey, wants to be with him.

It's quite easy in fact, Chuck thinks as he enters his room through the Morgan-door and starts to get ready for the new day.

**-The end-**


End file.
